Jeff Van Oudenhoven held off hard-charging Lowell Bennett in a six-lap sprint to the finish to win his first Fox River Racing Club late model feature of the season at Wisconsin International Raceway on Thursday night.
Van Oudenhoven, the night’s fastest qualifier, shot by Tom Gee Jr., on the inside at the start-finish line completing lap 10, but had to sweat out a couple of late cautions before his black No. 45 Ford Fusion finished .701 second ahead of Lowell Bennett’s No. 2 Toyota Camry.
“It just shows how strong we are,” said Van Oudenhoven, the defending champion. “We’ve been having some bad luck and our team just keeps holding together and pulling forward. We lost some points last week, but we’ve just going to try and win everything we now. Lowell is definitely tough this year and if we keep doing things like this with fast times and winning features it will pay off in the end.”
With four weeks to go, Van Oudenhoven leads Bennett by just 10 points 847 to 837, with Schroeder a distant third at 740.
Oudenhoven got his first win of the season in a similar fashion. Jim Duchow was trailing leader Jack Pankratz and second-place Kris Kelly on the ninth lap of the limited late model feature, but Duchow bumped Kelly and both he and Pankratz spun, clearing the way for Oudenhoven to get the win. Duchow was black-flagged and both Kelly and Pankratz were sent to the back. It was a great week for Oudenhoven, who took second to Ross Kenseth in Tuesday night’s Big 8 series event at WIR.
30-lap feature: 1, Jeff Van Oudenhoven, Kimberly; 2, Lowell Bennett, Neenah; 3, Tim Rothe, Appleton; 4, Mark Schroeder, Green Bay; 5, Andy Monday, Appleton; 6, Nate Van Wychen, Kaukauna; 7, Pete Vandermolen Jr., Oshkosh; 8, Jordan Thiel, Appleton; 9, Jason Vandenberg, Darboy; 10, Tom Gee Jr., Sobieski; 11, Robb Vanderloop, Kaukauna; 12, Maxwell Schultz, Reedsville; 13, Brett Piontek, Green Bay; 14, Doug Mahlik, Green Bay; 15, Cory Kemkes, Appleton; 16, Kyle Quella, Appleton; 17, Kyle Calmes, Freedom; 18, Eddie Muenster, Green Bay; 19, Nick Boldt, Appleton; 20, Kevin Eggert, Appleton; 22, Michael Anthony, Appleton.
| 
|